Price
by Scarfia
Summary: Artemis stole something at the end of TLC and the consequences may be greater than he realizes.


A/N: This is edited now. And it has a sequel.

Disclaimer: I do not own Artemis Fowl or Holly Short.

Price

A blue light came through the place where the two red drapes parted. Slowly it filled the entire room with its eerie presence. A bed, a dresser and a desk are revealed. On top of the wooden desk many papers lie full of calculations. One paper in particular catches the eye. It is filled not with mathematical equation or small symbols that mean nothing to the average reader, but rather with a few short words that do not even form a complete sentence. Quickly scribbled these letters must be for unlike the pages of neat scrip that are almost artistically posed, these words fill nearly the entire page.

The unseen portion of the desk comes to life when a computer screen is switched on. The boy at the desk is short. His young boyish face looks unusually bothered for someone his age. He frowns impatiently and taps his fingers against the screen lightly. The clock at his bedside reads 4:16 than changes to 4:17. Almost as though aware of the passing of time, he sighs unhappily and presses his hand to his forehead. A small noise sounds. With more energy than thought possessed the boy is up and out of his chair.

Standing barefoot he sticks his head outside. "Mother?" He whispers.

"Father…Butler?" Nothing. He turns and goes back inside.

By now the computer is ready. Without wasting time he is up and running. He searches the computers database. He reads page after page of his personal dairy. Eventually, he turns his interest toward the Internet. His hands are posed lightly on the mouse as they move quickly clicking, searching. At one time this could be done during normal hours. The boy was familiar with having to keep his research a secret. Mostly from his mother and father. Butler, his faithful bodyguard, was even sometime kept out of the loop until the last second possible, but Artemis always had every intention of telling him. Had the sometimes-overzealous guard caught wind of his plans, Artemis would have not cared. Well, maybe he would have been a bit disappointed.

This time however his research must be kept a secret at all costs.

Artemis had a brilliant mind. He knew this and therefore it made him maddening. He smirked, thinking this to himself that Holly would certainly agree with that description in a heartbeat. But the fact remained that even as he was frantically searching, even as he strained his ears for the tiniest sound, he was thinking.

In this case he was reminiscing. It had been not even a year since he had saved the People from the danger of being exposed. Holly had helped as well. And speaking of Holly…

As he looked carefully at the computer screen he could see the brief outline of his form. In place of his right eye was a shiny brown eye that used to belong to his fairy friend. He remembered her saying something about it. What was it?

"We'll always be a part of each other now." He whispered and out of Holly's old eye a single tear dropped.

In the beginning, before Holly Short come into his life, Artemis Fowl existed only to please himself. The research about Fairies and the Book were only so that he could get his hands on gold. He had discovered a new species and yet he did not care. This is not to say that the fairies did not interest him. On the contrary they fascinated him. But when he had realized that he had a chance to make money, all other thoughts were thrown out of his head.

So he had planned and planned and it had worked. He, Artemis Fowl, had outsmarted a species that considered themselves superior. However something had happened that he did not expect. He had changed. The second he had laid eyes on Holly's face something inside him had shifted just a bit. It was the beginning of the transformation of himself into someone more human. Ironically it seemed that despite his turnaround he was become physically less of a human every day.

Holly Short was an elf to which he was most grateful. She had helped him become a better person. She was wonderful, though he would never admit it aloud. However it was the effects of her genetics that were wreaking havoc on his nerves. At least that was what he thought it was. Coming back to his family after being missing for three years was the most difficult thing that he had ever done. He still could feel the tension in the air every morning when he was found him setting the places for breakfast. Even three years more had not eased their fears that someday he would not be there.

If they even had expected that anything was wrong than it would only make things worse. They would pick and pick at it, which would just bring back the more painful memories.

He had ignored the problem for sometime. It was probably just the stress from hiding his secret from his family. When things didn't seem quite right he had just let it go hoping that it would stay away for good. The problem came back to him night after night. Eventually he had developed the habit he was exercising today. He would wake up everyday before anyone else did and research his problem. The link into Foaly's files had remained intact for a short period of time and that was the first thing he had gone through, just in case.

On the other hand, having magic was wonderful. His experience in the time tunnel had been beyond anything that he had ever imagined. Having two different eyes was nothing. He rather enjoyed having a part of her with him. It always reminded him of the effect of her presence.

The only part of himself that seemed to have grown was his magic. At first he could barely heal a cut on his finger, yet then when he had tripped over an uneven pavement stone barely a month after the incident the gigantic scrape he had gained disappeared in a shower of blue sparks the moment he had merely considered trying to heal it. When Butler had begun to seem suspicious, Artemis had been both horrified and thrilled to find that he could mesmer Butler into ignoring his strange behavior.

Though all of these things lay heavily on his mind, the problem was that he was simply not growing. At first he had thought that he was just a late bloomer. However now when the world considered him to be twenty-one and he considered himself eighteen, he had no grown a single inch since his time before the time tunnel. He couldn't understand. What had he overlooked? How could he not understand what was happening to him.

And this morning when he had awaked a horrible thought had come to him. Hastily he had scribbled it on the nearest piece of paper before he had a chance to forget it in the fog of awakening thoughts. A single phrase that would ruin his life, if he was not mistaken.

Now as he was so close to understanding he wished that he wouldn't. A hand on his shoulder shook him from his thoughts. Artemis looked up and saw Holly give him a tentative smile.

She hovered barely a few inches above the ground. She was dressed in the same Section Eight suit that she had worn the last time he had seen her. A worried expression covered her face. Behind her the night sky was losing its eternal battle with the morning.

"Artemis." Her voice was loud enough to shock them both. Silently they stood staring at each other listening. After a few moments Artemis relaxed. Not even the twins seemed to have heard.

"Holly." His face was carefully void of any emotion. Inside though he was trembling.

"You must have noticed by now Artemis," She paused and than resumed speaking. "Well, the Counsel, has had a few sessions on your… _issue_ Artemis,"

Holly stopped speaking. The reason being was that Artemis had just done a very uncharacteristic thing. He had buried his face in her neck as he openly began to sob. Holly pulled him flush to her body. She whispered. "Hush Artemis, everything is going to be alright."

Blue light shone brightly on them for a moment and in the next second they were gone. The curtains closed behind them. And as the world went on, the small piece of paper went unnoticed until the following morning when Butler, who was wondering where Artemis had gotten to, found it.

It contained four words.

I am a fairy.

AN: Well, this is my first story and I'm really proud of it. I'd like to hear what you think of it though so please review.


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